What Inspires Us?

Walking the Iron Mtn/Cone Peak Trails in the Cascades over the weekend we came upon this wonderful tangle of peeled sticks. They had been jammed up when the stream was running high and were left high and dry by the time we passed. Could I or any other human have created a nicer sculpture than this one the water made as it smashed twigs and rocks up against this tree root? Then juxtaposed with more roots in the background and the jagged basalt rocks to the side, it was just a photo op waiting to be snapped.

Sorry the photos is a little fuzzy...

I often wonder what type of sculpture I could make to respond to this, but it would take some wire and twigs and other detris instead of clay, I think.

What Inspires Us?

Oooh, to make beautiful sculpture as nice as this weathered log. Saw some beauties on the Big Island this year. This one was at a sweet little beach at Waialea Bay. Gentle waves the day we were there but the trade winds were blowing just enough to drive us off the beach a little earlier than we'd planned. We're wimps.

Undulations and smoothness, little surprises in places, and one big dramatic flourish.

What more could one want in a sculpture?

Now, how to translate into something I can actually make in my studio...

What Inspires Us?

On a quick trip North we happened upon the 100th Birthday Celebration of the Hawthorne Bridge in downtown Portland. Beautiful flowing textile installation on the bridge was lit up in a techno-colorful way that was hard to capture with my digital camera and rusty photography skills. It is inspiring to know that people have visions this large and can get them financed--even if they are just a temporary moral booster like this was.

Our other detour was up to see the Johnston Ridge observatory 5 miles away from where Mt. Saint Helens blew out her northside in 1980. We were living in Portland when it was all happening and watched the roiling plumes that clear May day. Seeing the new landscape we were reminded of the tremendous energy that caused the blast, landslide, ash and gas storm. Makes one feel incredibly small. We were witnesses to a huge geographic event that was just a blip in the timeline of this earth.

It was lovely up there in a sobering way.

What inspires us?

This kiln shelf has all the color, drama and element of surprise that I would cherish on any pot of mine should it turn out looking like this. And it just happened that way in the firing through nothing we did, and we will grind off all of this beautiful decoration for the next firing. The marks are left from wads that keep our pottery from sticking to the shelf and from flame and ash that swirled all around.

Beautiful shelf. Hope the pots I'm making for spring woodfire turn out half as good.

What inspires us?

Oh to be able to get this kind of surface on a pottery piece. The richness of what we can see in nature--if we take the time to look--is just mind boggling. This marker was at the gate of a moist arboretum on Maui.

What gets us into the studio?

During a snowy December week I woke with this image in my brain after seeing myself make it in a dream, and so laid out some very thick slabs for it, figured out a way to put it together and support the weight of the walls with gravity wanting to flatten them. Over a couple of days let it dry and then carved and sponged this piece into shape. The term "compelling" actually was my mantra while I was making it. It felt like this piece needed to be made -- wanted me to caress it into shape.

I cannot deny its cradle-like shape and all the of the symbolic stuff that its creation implies. Art is the child I've chosen and this beautiful piece says it all. Whether it makes it through the finishing and firing, and whether or not I still love it as much in the end, it's too soon to say.